Tell To Teach

STEP 4. Assessment

We do constant informal assessment of the students’ comprehension throughout the lesson by asking questions and by choosing (without telling them) specific middle-level students or students who struggle but are eager to learn, to continuously confirm with them that the lesson is comprehensible.

However, we can also assess their comprehension, as a class and individually, in many different ways:

1. Frequent comprehension checks (finger checks)
2. Write the story as a class
3. Write the story individually
4. Give unannounced vocabulary quizzes. Read a short list of structures (maybe 5 to 10) and have the students write the meaning in English.
5. Answer questions about the story
6. Illustrate the story and then retell it
7. Show them illustrations of the story and have them retell that part of it
8. Give them a phrase and have them point at the right illustration
9. Write or tell a new story using five vocabulary structures.